Optimism is waning among charity campaigners that the Labour government will be more open to their lobbying than under the previous Conservative administration.

Before Labour’s July 2024 general election victory two thirds of charity campaigners thought a Labour administration would be more open to their work influencing policy

But six months into Labour’s first government since 2010 just over half of campaigners are similarly optimistic.

The findings have been published by charity sector campaigning organisation Sheila McKechnie Foundation (SMK).

It points out that this dip in optimism around Labour’s attitude to charity campaigning is “more significant when it comes to the willingness of the new government to enter into robust public political debate”.

While last year just under half though Labour would be more willing to debate issues robustly, this had dipped to just over a quarter.

One said: “A change of government did suggest movement, but it has yet to be delivered."

But this “drop in expectations” around Labour has not moved to “suspicion or hostility”,
“Instead, we are seeing big rises in ‘don’t know’ responses, which suggests that campaigners are taking a ‘wait and see’ approach for now,” said SMK.

It also notes that charity campaigners are reporting “notable shifts in how campaigns are being received, with more positive engagement from officials – even if public rhetoric remains critical”.

One campaigner said: “While on the surface they maintain a hostile rhetoric on asylum, they are engaging, which is a much better position than under the previous Government.”

Another added: “I think that there has been rhetoric backlash from Labour (in particular Starmer, writing op eds in the Sun) to climate campaigning and activists, I suspect to look as if they aren't pandering to them because, broadly, the media is quite hostile to climate activists.”

This week the Labour government was criticised by international aid charities over a decision to cut the aid budget to fund a hike in defence spending.

Public debate increasingly ‘fractious and polarised’

Charities responding to SMK’s survey also expressed concern that public debate was becoming increasingly “fractious and polarised” and putting charity campaigners at “personal risk”.

Half of campaigners are reporting resistance or a backlash around their campaigns over the last year. In two thirds of cases this is from politicians, while half say it is from the media.

Three in five say that “negative rhetoric is affecting their work”.

One Northern Ireland based charity campaigner said: “We’ve seen threats and actual violence, intimidation, and racially motivated.”

Another campaigner said: “From the media, we’ve seen a constant use of negative and discriminatory language around disabled people and social care, which erodes our ability to engage general public interest on how important changes are.”

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